Mac Donald, Andrew Paul - Great Square of Pegasus - COMPACT DISCS [CD]

In 1799, after having made a name for himself with major compositions, but before finishing his first symphony, Beethoven wrote a work for mixed strings and winds. This piece, the Septet op. 20, would become one of his most popular compositions, with a large number of arrangements, including the one for piano trio on this album. The form is clearly related to the divertimenti by Mozart, with six movements that alternate fast and slow tempos. The appearance of the Triple Concerto on the final disc in this series might surprise some listeners, as it is the only work with orchestra, but this composition has more in common with chamber music than with concertos. It was written in 1805, and it's instrumentation is highly exceptional if not unprecedented altogether. In tone, it is rather a stark contrast from Beethoven's other concertos, which generally contain easily recognizable melodies and strikingly rhythmic material, neither of which are found to a great degree here. Furthermore, the opposition of soloist and orchestra, a central aspect of many solo works with orchestra written up until that point that was the engine behind much of the drama, is also absent, with the orchestra taking a largely subservient role to the three soloists. So, although the work was called a 'Grand Concerto Concertant' when it was published, it really has very little in common with other works with a similar title. The question is whether this piece is a concerto at all, or whether it could be more fruitfully played and judged as a different kind of experimental piece in a more collaborative genre. This disc takes the latter approach, and by contextualizing it in a series of piano trios, it presents this work as Beethoven's most richly instrumented chamber music.

Following the success of their 2011 Gramophone Recording of the Year album, Pavel Hass Quartet presents Schubert's two paramount mature works rightly ranked among the most valuable chamber gems. The String Quartet in D minor has a sort of dark cipher encoded within, and Death and the Maiden reflects the quotation from Schubert's eponymous song in the second movement. The Quartet invited the exceptional German-Japanese cellist Danjulo Ishizaka into the mix, whose qualities were concisely described by Mstislav Rostropovich as 'phenomenal in his technical ability; perfect in his musical creative power.'

Mac Donald, Andrew Paul - Winds of Thera [COMPACT DISCS] date 11/01/2009